Glass for Europe and other construction products industries jointly release a paper on environmental declarations

Last week, Glass for Europe released a position paper calling on authorities to maintain continuity in the future methodology to declare environmental characteristics under the Construction Products Regulation of 2024.

The document raises concerns about discontinuing the use of weighted averages when calculating environmental data for products. For example, making weighted averages between production sites that manufacture the same products. In terms of consistency with past methodology, data quality, and burdens on the construction product value chain, such a discontinuity would be very damaging.

The paper also outlines issues with generalising the use of worst-case scenarios when making Declarations of Performance and Conformity under the new CPR, and the risks of incentivising the provision of data which are highly tied to each specific product’s proper impact.

This initiative follows an earlier one, where Glass for Europe addressed how the above-mentioned changes envisaged by authorities would specifically impact the flat glass value chain.

This contribution is now part of a broader call to concretely advance on establishing sensible rules for all stakeholders, and is supported by seven other trade associations representing precast concrete, concrete, cement, mortar, calcium silicate, mineral wool and gypsum producers.

Glass for Europe remains at the disposal of authorities and stakeholders to inform about the functioning of the flat glass value chain and the rules surrounding the practice of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) in our sector.

Meanwhile, Glass for Europe is working with other associations through Construction Products Europe to develop more detailed and consolidated proposals aimed at ensuring that the rules are suitable for all stakeholders while guaranteeing the reliability of the data provided to consumers.